Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-12
SARATOGA BUTTERFLIES,
More than Fifty Unmarried mil.
lion Heiresses.
[saratoga Letter I'M New York TImes. /


look upon now in this village whose
marriage settlement in each case will
not be less than $1,000,0OO. The
season is backward and the town is
not half full. In two or three weeks
there will be twice as many people
here, and by the rule of simple
proportion 106 young ladies, each
having a tender girlish heart and
endless bond to intrust to the
man of her choice. This does not
take into account the rich widows who
flock here in great cloud each season,
not like the winged beetle whose
colors are sombre, but rather like the
irrideseent butterfly, which is more
gorgeous to behold than is the red
wagon to childhood's eager eye. The
widow, like the butterfly, does
not go ajourneying until the chry-
sails season of mourning is
past. Further than this, there are
heiresses of minor degrees. running
down to a paltry $4,000 or 5000,
which, while it is quite handy sum
to make journey to Hoboken or
Montreal upon, is small change when
Saratoga heiresses are under consid-
Grafton. From this it may be gath
cred that more necessary to Saratoga
than even the searching spring water
of Hawthorn in that modern Cupid's
bower known as matrimonial
agency.
At the hop at the United States Fri
day evening there was one quadrille
set in which the four young ladies
represented the portly sum of $780,
100000. They were the two daugh-
ters of banker not thousand miles
from the corner of Wall and Broad
streets, the niece of California Sem
ator, and the daughter of the family
here which possesses the only cottage
with ballroom in the town. Each
of these young ladies will, in the nat
ural order of things, come into
possession of $5,000,000 in her
own right. Not one OF them is en-
gagged, or, so far as is known, has
suitor at all preferred. They are all
four pretty, and were they not behind
a golden barrier, would be at least as
lovable to the average man as the
average girl of their age. The bank
er's two daughters are petite and bru-
nette, and tasteful dressers. The niece
is large and blonde, with an appar-
emily sentimental disposition and an
cratic hustle. The young lady who
dances in her own ballroom is like
wise tall, blonde and fine-looking.
And yet, under the American mat
rimonial system as at present consti-
tuted, the quartet have little prospect
of making matches in any way desir-
able, unless they journey abroad and
purchase tarnished coronet now in
pawn, together with the incompatible
human incumbrance thereto attached.
The fact is, heiresses in America are
somewhat to be pitied.
At one OF the tables in the Grand
Union dining-room sits a slender but
prettily formed young lady with light
hair, which, with little assistance,
would be golden, and sweet, sensi-
BILE, but rather girlish, face. She is
accompanied by an elderly lady in
black silk, with pardonable weak
ness for bead trimming. They are
mother and daughter. Papa owns a
county or two up in Minnesota, and is
at home collecting his rents. Yes
terday the daughter was arrayed in a
delicate pink and cream dress, and
looked much more edible than anything
ON the dinner menu. She represents
seven figures to the young gentleman
who induces her to be his, but that
young gentleman shows no signs of
putting in an appearance. They know
nobody about the hotel or the town
here. They perforce drive alone and
drink Congress in each others fami-
liar but non-stimulating company.
The young lady at home is too
great parsonage for any local
swain to lift his daring eyes to.
Here, and wherever else she goes,
where the world is thronging she will
be nobody in particular, and is scarce
ly likely to attract attention from any
body except the professional fortune
hunter, who as a husband is never
worth the powder requisite to blow
him into the oblivion that he so hon
estly earns. Mademoiselle now looks
% at least. The probability is
that most of the girls she grew
up with are already fond wives and
happy mothers. She is unhappy for
the simple reason that happiness does
not consist in what one has, but in
the qualification of reasonable hopes
and desires. Verify, the dollar is not
all that it is melted up to be, and the
man who helps the heiress out of this
little difficulty by bridging the chasm
will be given monument much more
expensive than Miss Bartholdi's with
a grateful tribute on the pedestal in
letters as big as Coney Island adver-
tising sign.
OF eligible young men there is a
dearth. Mr.. Berry Wall is here, at
the United States, while the Grand
Union has something OF the same
kind with wooden elbows and SIM
per, which is believed true Berry
Wall, though little clouded in luster.
Heiresses do not marry that sort of
thing, however, and all the desirable
parties seem to be off yachting or
elsewhere. The effect is quite Gil
bertian. The piazza of either hotel
would make an admirable opening
scene for a comic opera with wailing
chorus of lonely heiresses. The duet
of dudes could take place on the side
Walk, anu tlic CuIt ietii "ihia
shower of beautiful vegetables. MIR.
Wall is out in new style OF evening
dress, by the way, and since the
discovery OF America no individual
effort has attracted more attention
than this. The coat and trousers are
of wine-colored brown cloth and the
vest of white satin brocade. A
white wig is only needed to make
of the wearer beautiful mural decora-
tion-endow him with that SURPRISING
beauty sometimes observed in Dres-
den young man who holds aloft a
tamborine through an eternity OF
painted china. Supplemented peo-
pie from the back districts gaze upon
MIR. Wall as if to meekly but politely
inquire whether any such thing rs he
was really intended to be made ami